Infidel

Today’s post is from June at Schimelpfenig Library:

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali refugee who emigrated to the Netherlands and eventually became a Dutch citizen and a parlimentarian.  Her citizenship was eventually revoked, then later reinstated, because in her desperation to escape her life in Somalia and Kenya, she lied on her asylum application.

Once Ayaan began to live among Dutch society, she begins to question the entire concept of submitting to a higher power who demands unquestioning obedience.  Ayaan becomes the infidel she was taught to avoid while growing up.  She discovers that Western ideas and the rational ordering of a society with modern mores is not the evil/Evil she was brought up to believe.  She also believes that dialogue with God, as opposed to submission, is acceptable. Ayaan eventually became an atheist because she could not reconcile a personal belief in any absolute.

I found the first half of the book disturbing because it demonstrates from Ali’s experience the plight of women in strict Muslim societies.  The second half is more hopeful for it is her university education in political science that eventually leads to her personal freedom.

Ayann’s friendship with Theo van Gogh, a relative of Vincent van Gogh, is what eventually leads her to a life of danger and bodily insecurity.  She and van Gogh were engaged in making a two-part movie entitled “Submission.” It is Ayaan’s opinion that “submission to Allah causes many other kinds of suffering. I saw this as a series of films that would tackle the master-slave relationship of God and individual.” Only the first part was filmed. As the result of his collaboration on the film, van Gogh was assassinated in broad daylight. This was the beginning of Ayaan’s struggle to stay alive. Part two of “Submission” was never filmed.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is also the author of The Caged Virgin.